


Ned the Diemaker

by AllotropicBi



Category: Bastille (Band), Pushing Daisies
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-06
Updated: 2015-04-06
Packaged: 2018-03-21 12:31:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3692367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllotropicBi/pseuds/AllotropicBi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dan is gone. You are gullible and have hope. It's your last and only chance. (Pushing Daisies AU x Bastille)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ned the Diemaker

It happened too fast.

One second Dan was biting his lip with a nervous smile, showing you a new track as the two of you were driving home, and the next thing you knew the car was upside down. You were immensely disoriented for a short while, but you managed to retain consciousness long enough to see Dan before help came. Blood. Everywhere. He didn’t look awake. You tried to mourn, tried to reach over and beg him to wake up, but you were too groggy yourself with your own injuries, and soon everything faded into the numbing pain.

-

Not everyone reacts weirdly when you tell them you work at the morgue in London. Just your friends. Which really doesn’t make sense. If they can’t handle your job, why are they friends with you? But you can’t deny it is a little creepy every time you see a dead body wheeled in, knowing either you or someone else from the place is meant to give the autopsy. Then again, you’ve always had a high tolerance for that kind of stuff.

The accident was two days ago. You’d suffered some injuries that they treated you for quickly. Dan was declared dead on arrival. Everything you knew was over.

But now, that doesn’t explain why you are at work two days later. You weren’t even meant to leave the hospital yet, but you pulled some strings and called in a few favours. You aren’t here to deal with dead people today, not after your loss. You aren’t that cold hearted that you could just get over it. No. Dan meant everything to you. His embrace, his warm eyes, his laugh, his voice, his everything. None of that could be redeemed.

But here you are, hoping that somehow you can. 

You lean back in your chair. It's almost one fifteen. They should have arrived by now.  You do your best to hold yourself together.

Two days. Two days ago you had your Dan with you, your Dan in your arms. Two days ago he was happy and excited and nervous. He was there to give you a kiss atop your head and hold you to him tightly. 

And now you are here, the worst place you can be, alone. You wouldn't be here if you didn't believe in it. You wouldn't be here if you knew all hope was lost. 

There's a knock at the door. You take a deep breath and get up from the chair, making your way with shaky hands towards the door. You can hear the blood pounding in your ears. 

"Emerson Cod," the man on the other side of the door says, flashing you his business card. “Private investigator. This," he says, gesturing to his awkwardly tall companion, "is my associate."

You nod and let them in the office. They're American. They've made a few trips here before and you've been wary of their odd behaviour, and each time you listened in a little closer. They're visiting the country and solving murder cases like it's the easiest thing anyone could ever do. 

The odd thing you noticed every time was how they insisted on shutting the door behind them, just the two of them going in alone. Each time you heard a new voice that was definitely not their own. There was a third person in there, only when they left the room it was just the two of them, and no one else was with the dead body. 

You have your hunches, and if they're right they might be the key to giving you your Dan back. 

You haven't slept since that day. Nightmares linger and haunt you even when you're just on the edge of sleep. So instead you force yourself awake and try not to think about how hollow you feel inside. 

"Are you alright?" the tall guy says from behind Emerson. 

You look wearily between the two of them. 

"I'm the one that called this in," you admit. "It wasn't murder. It was an accident."

The taller one, Ned as you've learned in previous weeks, looks at you with wide eyes, probably hoping you're not going to say what you're about to say. 

"I know because I was with him. He -" you cut off, your throat suddenly closing up. You take a moment to lean against your desk and get yourself together. Neither man says a word, cautious of giving away too much. "I've noticed you guys a lot. I don't know exactly what it is that you do but... If my hunch is right and there's the slightest chance that I can see my Dan again just to say goodbye..." you trail off. 

Emerson clears his throat and you look up to see him staring at Ned with a stern glare. Ned ignores him and looks at you, his eyebrows knit together. 

"We can't..." he mutters apologetically. 

An unexpected sob wracks through you, and you bring a hand up to your mouth. 

"Hey," Ned says, his voice soft and soothing. He reaches out awkwardly and goes to put a hand on your shoulder, which only makes you cry more. He withdraws his hand and pulls Emerson to one side of the room while you repeat a line of pleas in your head.

 _Dan_.

“You’re always telling me not to do this, Emerson,” Ned whispers, though you can still hear clearly. You don’t blame him.

“Look at the girl,” Emerson replies. “Besides, she _knows_. If we don’t do it she might talk.”

“I wouldn’t,” you interrupt. “Just because I want to see Dan again… He means the world to me but I wouldn’t ruin someone’s life just because you chose your mind over someone else’s heart.”

The two of them watch you for a second before turning back to each other.

“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same,” Emerson whispers. Ned looks to you again, an empathetic look in his eyes. He nods and makes his way back over to you.

“I – We’ll do this. But you have to understand: now that you know you can’t tell _anyone_.”

“I understand.”

“Do you?” Emerson cuts in. “Because if we come back for a new case next week and see you’ve called in a favour for a friend to say a _sweet little goodbye_ to her mother, you’ll wish you didn’t.”

“Emerson,” Ned sighed. “You don’t have to put it like that.”

“Fine, say it however you wish, but I’m not putting your ass on the line for this.”

Ned nods and looks down at you again. “Emerson, you’re good to stay out here?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he replies, waving a hand dismissively.

Ned, with his shoulders hunched forward and his hands deep in his pockets, jerks his head in gesture for you to follow him to where Dan is.

“You sure you’re ready for this?” He asks.

“It’s the only way I’ll be able to sleep at night,” you mutter, wrapping your arms around yourself. He opens the door and lets you enter first, shutting the door behind him.

“Do you know how this works?”

“No,” you admit. “I’ve only ever suspected from what little I heard.”

Ned nods. “I touch him, and from that second you have a minute to talk to him and say whatever you need to. After that minute, I have to touch him again. Then he’ll be gone forever,” he says regretfully.

“Just a minute?”

“Yeah. Just sixty seconds. You might want to think about what you’re going to say, or you can just spew out whatever you feel like, it’s really your cho - ”

“Why just a minute?”

Ned looks down at the floor. “If it’s longer than a minute… It’s not how things are meant to work – if waking the dead is meant to be a thing that nature allows… If he stays, then someone else dies in his place. Someone in proximity. And in this case, since you’re the closest…”

“It would be me,” you deadpan.

“Maybe. It might be Emerson since he’s just outside. I’m not willing to take that risk.”

You walk over to the table where Dan lays and pull the blue sheet back, revealing his pale, lifeless face. You take a deep breath that you can’t bring yourself to exhale, tears welling up in your eyes.

“And if you told Emerson to go farther away?”

Ned comes over beside you, hands now behind his back. “I – That’s not what he would want, is it?” he says simply. “Dan wouldn’t want that for you.”

You know it’s true, but you can’t bring yourself to accept it. With as much will power as you can muster, you turn away from Dan and shuffle off to one corner of the room.

“Just give me a second,” you say.

“Of course.”

You were right. This is real. Dan is gone. But you can have him back, just for a minute. You can see him smile again, if only once. But after that, it’s over. He’ll never be there again to hold you, to sing to you, to tell you it’ll be alright.

It isn’t until Ned’s crouched down beside you with a hand on your shoulder that you notice you’re curled into a ball in the corner, deep sobs escaping you with what little breath you have.

Awkwardly, but kindly all the same, Ned picks you up a little bit and wraps his arms around you. You press your head into his chest and keep crying until you have nothing left in you to give.

“I’m sorry,” you say meekly, pulling away and falling back against the wall.

“It’s alright,” he says. “I know what it’s like. Just tell me when you’re ready, yeah?”

You nod and bring your sleeves to your face, trying to wipe away at the tears. Ned leaves the room, but quickly returns with some tissues that are most likely from the desk outside.

“Thank you,” you mutter. He nods and gets up, walking back over to Dan’s body.

It takes you a few minutes and a bit of extra strength to pull yourself up on your feet and make your way over to Dan.

“I’m ready,” you say. You know you’re not. Nothing can prepare you for having an extra minute, then having him taken from you again for forever.

Ned pulls up his jacket sleeve and lets out a breath before starting a timer, quickly reaching forward to touch Dan.

And he’s back.

He blinks his eyes open, and you barely notice Ned moving away to give you two some privacy.

Dan’s eyes land on you, and for a second he smiles, but then he frowns. “No,” he says. “You’re not meant to be…”

“I’m not,” you say, barely able to squeeze the words out. You take in a shaky breath and try to smile as a tear runs down your cheek. “We have a minute.”

Dan nods, as if it makes the most sense in the world. His face scrunches when you can’t stop crying, and he reaches out a hand for you to take.

“Can I hug you?” he asks. You don’t bother replying and meet him halfway, clutching onto him.

“I miss you, Dan. I – How am I supposed to go on without you?”

“It’s alright,” he croons, resting his hand on the back of your head and running it through your hair soothingly. It only makes you cry more as you bury your head into his shoulder.

“I won’t… I love you so much Dan, I don’t want to lose you.”

Dan sniffs a bit and nods against you. “You haven’t and you won’t. I’m always with you. But hey, listen to me. I want you to be happy, yeah? I don’t want… Do what makes you happy. And find people that make you happy. I don’t want you to be sad. It might take time, but fall in love. I want you to be happy.”

“30 seconds,” Ned says quietly.

 

You make a noise in the back of your throat. “I don’t want to fall in love with anyone else,” you whisper.

“I know, love, I know,” he replies, kissing you on the cheek. He wipes a few tears away with his thumb and presses his forehead to yours, looking at you straight in the eyes. You want to shut your eyes, because they’re stinging and it’s all too much, but this is your only minute. You have to take as much as you can. “There’s music on my computer. My password is… The day we met,” he admits a little embarrassedly, laughing breathily. “On my desktop. Only for you. There’s one track just for you that I was going to show you on your birthday. Take it. All of it, yeah?”

You nod and try to make the most of it. You lean forward and press your lips to Dan’s one last time.

Ned comes to stand beside you two.

“I love you so much,” Dan whispers.

“I love you too.”

Dan wraps his hand in yours and quickly brings it to his lips, pressing a kiss to your hand and then looking up at you. He smiles a little, but all it does is make your heart clench in your chest.

Ned touches him again, and he’s gone forever.

“I’m sorry,” Ned whispers.

You can’t say anything. You stare at Dan’s lifeless body. Dead. Forever.

“Can you give me some time?” you utter. Ned hums and leaves the room.

You stare stoically at Dan’s body before you. Everything you ever had… Gone.

You feel a fresh wave of pain hit you, and suddenly the tears come back in full force. You lean down to hold Dan’s body again, only this time he can’t hold you back.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a request and if you read or enjoyed it please let me know!! Thank youuu


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